A sample of the mountain range that lies between the north-south Columbia River channel and the westernmost coastline of Washington State (except for the Olympic Peninsula), where myriads of islands dot the waters of the Salish Sea (Puget Sound) between Bellingham WA and Victoria BC. Publisher Caxton Press has released two of my books about this paradise of beautiful lands: San Juan Islands: Into the 21st Century(2011) and The Columbia River.(late 2013).
I am fortunate enough to live in the northwesternmost part of this Pacific Northwest for half my life (after leaving Los Angeles CA). For research on the Columbia River I traveled its entire length. To comprehend the happenings of a 1243-mile river, and with 12 months to complete the original book, I began at the first mile far up in Canada and researched 100 miles of river for two weeks, then returned home to my office to write for two weeks. I returned to pick up where I left off at mile 101" for the next 100 miles, and so on. As I came to the Pacific Ocean at Astoria OR on the last miles, I found that a drama was unfolding right then where the Columbia enters through a turbulent channel into the salt water.. Furthermore, a group happened to be in Astoria that day to remember friends lost by the Coast Guard and other rescue personnel years ago in that same entrance, who tried to save an incoming commercial ship. How strange timing for me as I ended the Columbia River's story..
The mountains above are in the heart of the North Cascades Range , a photo taken in May 2014, just as the snow was melting. The peaks average 8,000 feet and above (some peaks to 14,500''), Over several years I have backpacked and ridden my horse along many trails in these mountains, marveling at the intense beauty of this country. I had a well--trained and reliable leopard Appaloosa mare that I trusted with my life, and she with me. Sometimes we were on park or forest trails only four feet wide with a cliff at one side. One would not want a skittish mount there, indeed.
Moving farther west again off the coast of mainland Washington into the Salish Sea, my family had a cabin on one island that was restricted only to a few residents. This meant long summer days lolling under red-trunked madrona trees, hiking old logging roads, swimming in a couple of small lakes, and admiring sunsets over other islands nearby. Visitors truly do not understand this Pacific Northwest and its climate. West of the mountains it rains often from November to March and virtually not at all from late June to October. Average rainfall is about 35" at Bellingham annually, almost all in the winter months when the temperatures are usually about 45-55 degrees. The exception is a part of the Olympic Mountains that border the outer mainland coasts south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which intercept incoming showers borne on a normal southwest wind and absorb as much as 100 inches there.
Researching these two books and others meant learning about international sailing and fishing, logging verdant forests and having the good sense to start conservatively "farming" the woods, instead of cutting it all down. It is a renewable resource. I talked to ship and barge captains on ocean and rivers, ranchers and farmers, railroad workmen and the corporations that managed to push railroads through mountains such as the ones above (actually, they never were able to get through the first 70-90 miles of USA mountains south o9f the Canadian border .) The tales of railroads are part of the book, Stevens Pass, also published by two different companies -- Mountaineer Books and later Caxton Press again , I have been lucky to ramble and boat through such unusual lands and hope this vibrant spirit of the land itself comes through to you, a hoped-for reader.
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